


Blood and Chlorine, or, Stupid Trash Babies Become Vampires

by SharpestRose



Category: Free!
Genre: Gen, Vampire AU, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-30
Updated: 2013-09-30
Packaged: 2017-12-28 01:04:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/985806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SharpestRose/pseuds/SharpestRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I doubt having a vampire in the team breaks any competition rules,” Miho replies. “After all, Samezuka has two on theirs.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blood and Chlorine, or, Stupid Trash Babies Become Vampires

**Author's Note:**

> Co-plotter in this debacle was Beth (tealtier.tumblr.com). 
> 
> The whole thing came about because Tatsuhisa Suzuki and Daisuke Hirakawa are vampires in the Diabolik Lovers franchise so I was joking about what hilarious vampires Makoto and Rei would be, and then I actually listened to Tatsuhisa Suzuki’s Diabolik Lovers CD and decided ‘hilarious’ wasn’t the right word at all.

 

Aiichiro doesn’t dream of the Olympics, or even of regional competitions. All he wants is to be normal. That’s all he’s ever wanted, ever since he first went to school and started to understand that the other kids there weren’t tired all the time, and didn’t have to spend months of every year in hospital, and were allowed to run around and do ordinary kid stuff without adults hovering close with watchful eyes and concerned expressions.

Samezuka was going to be a new start, a place where nobody knew that he was different. He’d gone along to the meeting for new students interested in joining the Swim Club, and he’d put down his name on the sign-up sheet, just like anybody else would.

He hadn’t even been out of the door before the captain had called out to him.

“Hey, Nitori, hang on for a second.”

Mikoshiba gave him a friendly smile, but Aiichiro’s heart was already sinking. Someone must have warned him about Aiichiro in advance.

“I need someone responsible to be in charge of the club’s paperwork and scheduling. An Assistant Manager, who could come to events and be a part of the team without--”

Aiichiro knew that it was offered with the best of intentions, but it still made him feel miserable. He shook his head.

“I really can swim. I know I can.” He tried to keep his voice as respectful as he could, while staying adamant on his position. “Please let me try.”

Mikoshiba gave him a thoughtful look.

“How’s this -- if you can complete the 100m free in two minutes, then you’re on the team. We can work on lowering your time after that. I’ll time you a week from today.”

Aiichiro was beside himself, he felt so happy. And he’s been working hard ever since, all week.

His time’s right on the borderline, some laps just under two minutes and some just over, but he knows that he’ll be able to give himself that final competitive push and get in under the time limit when he shows Mikoshiba this afternoon.

His phone chimes a half-hour before they’re due to meet, with a message from Mikoshiba.

_I’m delayed with classwork. Can we reschedule for later this evening?_

Aiichiro writes back that yes, of course they can. His heart’s practically thrumming at this point, because he’s so anxious about what’s going to happen, but somehow he’ll manage to make it through a few extra hours.

The pool’s deserted except for the two of them by the time they make it there, but Aiichiro doesn’t mind that. He’d hate for anyone to see it if he fails.

No, he’s not going to fail. He’s not even going to think about it as a possibility.

As soon as he’s in the water, striving against the burning in his chest, it feels just as he’d hoped it would: the extra push is there, the determination to prove himself. All he needs to do is make it to the finish. He can do this.

He does it. He touches his hand to the wall and he knows, even before he looks up at Mikoshiba, that he’s managed to make it under two minutes. Aiichiro’s so happy and relieved that he doesn’t even care how fast his heart feels, how lightheaded and dizzy he is.

Mikoshiba’s walking over towards him as Aiichiro pulls himself out of the pool and climbs to his feet.

Oh. Wait. He’s sitting down again. He must have stumbled. He’ll get up again in just a moment, once

.

..

...

Aiichiro’s lying on a bed, in a room with the lights off.  

He’s lying on top of the blankets, and he's still in his wet bathing suit, but he doesn't feel cold.

There's a sweet, rich taste in his mouth and as soon as he's aware of that, it overwhelms all other sensations. He licks at his lips and finds more of the same flavor there, and whimpers. Some distant, detached part of him registers that he should be immediately embarrassed at making a sound like that. But the rest of him doesn’t care. It’s so good. He needs more.

“Nitori? Are you awake?”

He opens his eyes, blinking a few times. He can see the captain leaning against the edge of a study desk, just near the bed. This is a dorm room like Aiichiro’s own, decorated with the owner’s own possessions and school supplies. He’s surprised at how much detail he can notice, considering how dark the room is.

“I feel terrible about this,” Mikoshiba says. Aiichiro sits up gingerly, afraid that a headache is going to slam into him any second now. He can’t remember the last time he felt this energetic. It can’t possibly last.

“What happened?” Aiichiro asks. He touches his lip and then sucks away the wetness on his fingertip, seeking out more of the taste still lingering in his mouth.

“You collapsed. Do you remember that?”

The memory is fuzzy, but Aiichiro nods. “I think so.”

“You weren’t... your heart was...” Mikoshiba says, stumbling over his words and then giving up, looking shaken. “I’m so sorry. I tried to ask you, to give you a choice, but it was already too late by then.”

Aiichiro’s fingertip hits the point of his eye tooth. It’s much sharper, and a little longer, than he remembers.

“Oh,” he says. Then he smiles happily. “Thank you! I mean...” Aiichiro trails off, blushing. “It’s very kind of you to decide I was worthy enough to be like you.”

“That’s not quite the reaction I expected. Most people tend to be more surprised and upset when they find out that vampires are real, especially when they’ve just been turned into one without any kind of warning.” Mikoshiba’s tone is that of of someone who becomes surer every day that he’s surrounded by deranged idiots.

“Well... to be honest, I’m glad. I was so tired and sick all the time, and now...” Aiichiro pauses, taking stock of himself and how he feels. “It’s better. So please don’t feel bad about it. It was very thoughtful for you to try to offer me a choice.”

Mikoshiba shakes his head. “It wouldn’t really have meant much, even if you’d been awake to hear it. A human can’t properly understand what it is that they’re even agreeing to, in a situation like that.”

 

~

 

Miho Amakata looks at the piece of paper that Rei’s just handed her. “A... contract?”

“In case either of us ever needs to demonstrate that I gave full consent.”

“You’ve made a contract formally declaring that you want me to make you into a vampire.”

“Yes.”

Miho tries to look as convincingly baffled as possible. “Is this some kind of obscure student prank I’m too old to understand?”

Rei pushes his glasses up his nose. “Today at swimming practice, you encouraged us by saying that Li Bai once told you that _In human life, accomplishment must bring total joy. Do not allow an empty goblet to face the moon. You only have one life, so you should do what you want. It would be foolish not to drink from the glass placed before you_.”

“You have a good memory for quotations. I don’t see what-”

“Last week, you said that Napoleon used to beat you at chess.”

“Yes, well--”

“Amakata-sensei, when he asked how old you were, you told Nagisa that you were born during the Shang Dynasty.” Rei gives her a small smile. “And unlike Nagisa, I actually know when the Shang Dynasty happened.”

“All of your evidence could be explained by my having an eccentric sense of humour, you know,” Miho says, trying to hand the contract back. Rei shakes his head, not moving to accept the paper.

“Nagisa also said that the first time they approached you with the idea for a swimming club, he made a joke about hearing a scandalous rumour circulating about your past, and you panicked.”

“That had nothing to do with the fact I’m a vampire! Uh, I mean. It wouldn’t. If I was. Which I’m...” Her shoulders slump in defeat. “Why do you even want to be a vampire?”

She doesn’t bother asking why he drew up a contract to make it official. She hasn’t known Rei for long, but she’s known him long enough for that much to be completely unsurprising.

“I’m at the peak of youth and virility. It makes sense,” he replies, matter-of-fact. Miho has to swallow down her laugh behind a sudden cough.

“Well, I do admit that the contract is a very considerate touch. All right. Call your parents and tell them you’ll be home late.”

 

~

 

“Have you changed your diet recently?” Kou asks at practice, a week later.

Rei shoots a worried look in Miho’s direction. “What?”

“Your muscle definition. It’s a little different.”

“You need a new hobby,” Makoto tells her, obviously only half joking.

Rei gives Miho another glance.

Unfortunately, this time Nagisa notices.

“Aha! I’ve worked it out! Amakata-sensei has turned Rei-chan into a vampire!”

Makoto shakes his head vehemently. “No creepy jokes. I hate things like that!”

Haruka climbs out of the pool, giving Rei a slow look and then turning to give an equally long stare at where Miho sits under her usual voluminous sun umbrella.

“It’s true, isn’t it?” he says finally.

“Don’t encourage it!” Makoto complains.

Nagisa’s eyes widen. “Really?!?! Rei-chan, you became a vampire and you didn’t even tell me?”

“Why would I tell you?”

“Why _wouldn’t_ you tell me?”

Miho claps her hands to get their attention. “None of you are to tell _anybody_ ,” she says. “Do you understand?”

Kou looks thoughtful. “Is it morally right to have a vampire in the Swim Club? It’s hardly fair, is it?”

“I doubt having a vampire in the team breaks any competition rules,” Miho replies. “After all, Samezuka has two on theirs.”

“WHAT? What about my brother? Is he in any danger?”

“No, no, of course not. Seijuro is a very responsible young man. He’d never put your brother in a dangerous situation.”

 

~

 

_Tha-thump. Tha-thump. Tha-thump._

Aiichiro does his best to take naps in any free time he has during the day. He’s become so good at it that he can curl up in a corner and close his eyes for five minutes and then spring back to full wakefulness as soon as he needs to.

He needs to do it that way, because lately he hasn’t been able to get much sleep at all during the night. All he does is lie there, awake, listening to the steady sound of Rin’s heartbeat from the bunk below.

 

~

 

On Monday, Rei wakes up when Nagisa stands on his bed and dumps a half-kilogram of silver glitter over him.

“So you’ll sparkle!”

Tuesday, Rei discovers that his house is now home to a shoebox’s worth of moths.

“They’re like nocturnal butterflies!”

On Wednesday, Nagisa walks around Rei’s room and complains loudly that nothing in there looks like it belongs to a vampire.

“There should be more candelabras! Or a pipe organ! You don’t even have a coffin!”

_“How do you keep getting into my house?”_

Nagisa laughs. “Don’t be silly! It’s vampires who need to be invited in, not people needing vampires to invite them!”

Thursday:

“Can you still cross running water? Does a pool even count as running water? Can you smell my blood even though I'm not bleeding? What if I stuck myself with this pin, can you smell it then? Does it increase my sex appeal to vampires if I'm bleeding? Can you still kiss people or do the fangs get in the way? Do you still need your glasses? Can you see yourself in mirrors?”

On Friday, desperate times call for desperate measures, but to no avail.

“Why are you staying at Haru-chan’s house? Does that mean you don’t really need to sleep in your native soil? Can we get a pizza? Do you still eat pizza? What about squid? Do vampires eat squid or just drink blood?”

Rei asks Makoto next.

“Even if he follows me, he HAS to behave if your little brother and sister are around, doesn’t he? Please, Makoto-senpai, you have to help me. Nagisa’s started carrying a pin everywhere with him and sticking his arm with it and then waving it at me, to see if I notice. As if anyone could miss him standing there shouting and waving his arm around!”

“I don’t know.” Makoto looks serious. “Is it really safe to let you around Ren and Ran?”

“I’m completely harmless. I give you my word.”

“All right, but you have to speak to Amakata-sensei about what Nagisa’s been doing. Maybe if she tells him to stop, he’ll listen.”

 

~

 

Miho bangs her gavel. She doesn’t really need it, but she’s always thought they were a very satisfying way of getting attention.

“All right. First item is that there have been sightings of several rogues not far from here. If you hear anything about them, or see them, you need to bring the matter to me. I know teenage boys think they’re invincible, but this isn’t something you should try to handle yourselves. Got it?”

Seijuro, Aiichiro, and Rei all nod. “Got it!”

“Then, onto the more important order of business. I know that there were extenuating circumstances at play when Aiichiro was made a vampire. That isn’t a problem. But I want to make it very, very, _very_ clear that no other people that young are to bec--”

Rei clears his throat. “Nagisa is actually several months older than I am.”

“Oh. Well, um...” Miho gives up. “Look, the new rule is that nobody’s allowed to turn him into a vampire. Ever. Or they’ll be very, very sorry.”

 

~

 

Aiichiro tries to be as encouraging as he can for Mikoshiba. Every time Mikoshiba sets off on another attempt to get Rin’s pretty sister to notice him, Aiichiro makes sure to give him an encouraging “ganbatte kudasai!” before he leaves.

It never seems to work, though. Being a vampire isn’t nearly as romantic or interesting as it is in books and films. Kou wasn’t even impressed when Mikoshiba wore a cape!

It’s all very confusing and depressing, in Aiichiro’s opinion. Energy drinks don’t taste nearly as good anymore, and certain beautiful dashing talented senpais are _incredibly distracting_ , especially when they come back from their evening runs and the smell of sweat and exertion in the dormitory makes something ancient and predatory sit up in Aiichiro’s brain and _want_.

All in all, he’s still very glad that this happened to him, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its down side, too.

 

~

 

And then one day, Makoto doesn’t show up to collect Haruka on the way to school.

They try phoning him several times through the morning, but get no answer. As soon as lunch period rolls around, Haruka, Nagisa and Rei all leave the school grounds together and head towards the Tachibana home.

Rei shields himself from the midday sun with an umbrella he ordered especially online, with an SPF of 50 and a fiberglass shaft and shiny purple fabric. Sunlight doesn’t send him bursting into flame, like it might have done in fiction, but it does make him burn faster than it did when he was a human.

Nagisa looks at the umbrella and sighs. “It’s such a shame you don’t sparkle.”

There’s nobody at the house.

“Maybe there was an emergency,” Rei suggests to Haruka, whose face is at its most closed-off and expressionless as they walk from empty room to empty room. “A cousin or an aunt got sick. They all had to leave right away, but he’ll call and explain any minute now.”

Haruka ignores him, moving faster and faster between rooms. By the time they’ve checked the entirety of the house, Haruka’s practically sprinting down the hallway. “Mako! _Makoto_!”

Silence.

Rei gets out his phone and calls Miho, explaining the situation and giving her the address.

By the time she arrives, Haru is sitting on the front door step, staring at nothing, unmoving. Nagisa’s still walking from room to room, as if Makoto and his family might suddenly appear out of nowhere.

Rei nods hello to Miho, and to Seijuro and Aiichiro who are standing behind her. He’s surprised to see Kou’s brother with them, as well.

Aiichiro looks sheepish. “We were out jogging.”

Rei decides that it’s not worth worrying about, considering everything else currently going on. “I couldn’t smell blood anywhere,” he tells Miho. “And I was here just the other day, playing with the children. I’d be able to tell if the scent inside had changed since then.”

“Wait, what?” Rin asks.

Seijuro scratches his chin, giving a crooked smile. “Vampires are real. It’s supposed to be secret, but nobody’s very good at that part.”

“ _What?_ ”

“There isn’t time for this!” Haruka snaps, standing up. His eyes are blazing, face determined. “We need to find them. Now.”

They don’t find anything else, though. There’s no sign or smell of any blood, no indication of a struggle.

“I’ll find out what’s happened. I promise,” Miho says, addressing them all but keeping her gaze fixed on Haruka. “If it’s anything to do with vampires, I’ll do whatever I can to make it right.”

 

~

 

After the second day, about the only comfort Haruka can find in the situation is that there are just as many neighbourhood cats around as there ever are.

That’s almost a reassurance, isn’t it? It means Makoto’s probably not hiding somewhere, hurt and hungry, trying to lure animals in while he waits for someone to come help him.

It’s not much. It’s not anything, really, and a part of Haruka knows that. But he needs _something_ to pin hope on, because otherwise... otherwise he doesn’t know what he’s going to do.

It takes Haruka forever to get to sleep that night.

He doesn't know how much later it is when he wakes with a start, a hand slipping down under the collar of the t-shirt he wears to bed, pushing it aside to expose more of his shoulder beside his throat.

“Mako,” he says before his eyes are even focused, because he'd know Makoto's shape anywhere, leaning down over him.

Makoto gives a quiet, hollow laugh.

“It was so much worse than water, Haru. It's worse than drowning.”

Haruku tries to put his hand on Makoto's, to offer as much reassurance as he knows how. “We can call-”

“We don't need to call anyone. We don't need anyone else. Just you and me,” Makoto answers in a whisper, leaning in, and Haruka's too sleep-addled, too shocked, too confused to struggle before he feels Makoto’s teeth bite down and break the skin over the pulse in his neck.

 

~

 

Aiichiro’s not asleep when his phone goes off shortly before dawn.

“Hello?”

It’s Miho. “I’ve found Makoto’s family. They’re... all right. Still human, at least. I’ve taken care of the rogues. I forgot how much blood comes out when a head gets torn off – I’ve ruined this sweater. It’s a real shame.”

“Nitori?” Rin asks muzzily, shifting around as he wakes up. Aiichiro cups his hand around his phone, trying to muffle the sound.

“What do you need from me?” he asks Miho in a whisper.

“Makoto isn’t with them. I need you and Seijuro and Rei all out looking for him.”

“Okay,” Aiichiro agrees, and ends the call. He drops down from his bunk to the floor without using the ladder, hoping to leave Rin as undisturbed as possible so he can settle back to sleep.

No such luck. “What’s going on?”

“Tachibana-san is still missing. His family are safe now,” Aiichiro answers. Rin sits up in bed, wide awake.

“Haru.”

 

~

 

The cool of the water helps soothe the heat burning under Haruka’s skin, and calms him down enough that after a while his shaking tapers off to only the occasional tremble.

The bites seem to be healing quickly. He doesn’t think he’s going to get any scars from them.

He’d made Makoto stay for as long as he could, pleading with him to let Haruka call the others, to help, but each time Makoto had just laughed. It was cold, vicious laugh, absolutely nothing like Makoto’s usual chuckle.

“You don’t see yet, do you? It’s nothing like how they act it is.” He’d buried his face in the crook of Haruka’s shoulder, inhaling deeply. “It’s death.”

“I’m not scared of you.”

“You should be.”

Haruka had shrugged, as best as he was able pinned flat on his back on his bed. He’d never had any interest in what people said he ‘should’ feel about anything, especially not important things.

“If I drained you and brought you back, you’d see then. You’d feel it too.”

He’d bitten Haruka again, then, but Haruka hadn’t flinched or tried to move away. “It’s not going to work. I’m not scared of you.”

But if Makoto had heard him, he hadn’t believed him.

And then he’d gone, vanishing back into the dark he’d come from, and Haruka had come in to run a bath, and now he was trying to work up the energy to call the others and tell them what had happened.

He wasn’t sure why Makoto had left him alive, but then again he wasn’t sure of anything Makoto was thinking right now. All Haruka knew for certain was that Makoto needed his help, and help from the others.

The shouts of Rin and his kohai make Haruka raise his head, but he doesn’t bother getting out of the bath until the pair make their way inside (did Makoto leave a door open behind him?) and find him.

Rin’s eyes widen, horrified, at the rapidly fading bruises on Haruka’s shoulders. “What did he-”

“It’s nothing,” Haruka cuts him off, climbing out of the water. “He was trying to frighten me.”

Aiichiro’s the one who asks the question hanging heavy in the air between them all.

“Why?”

 

~

 

“He didn’t die properly,” Miho explains. She’s changed her clothes, but Rei can still see blood in her hair and under her fingernails. She still looks like herself, but there’s a hard, furious element in her now that he hasn’t seen before. He feels a little bit in awe of her.

“I’ve seen it happen before,” she goes on. “It only matters when it’s a bad death, like this one was. If it goes wrong while they’re coming back, they can’t shake off what they felt when they were slipping away.”

“He’s still drowning,” Haruka surmises flatly. Miho sighs, then nods.

“That’s one way to put it, yes.”

“What do we do?”

She gives a wry, weary smirk. “We kill him again, of course.”

 

~

 

Everyone’s waiting and at the ready, when Makoto shows up at his family’s house.

“They’re not here,” Haruka tells him. “They’re at the hospital. They’re all alive.”

Makoto stays stock-still, his eyes the only part that Rei can see moving as his gaze darts from each of them to the next. His posture looks deceptively relaxed, but Rei knows he’s ready to move and strike at any moment.

Rei is struck, hardly for the first time, by how beautiful other vampires are. Everything about them is powerful and refined, like a perfectly forged blade. Even marked with blood traces, like Amakata-sensei, or with a frightened feral edge to them like Makoto’s current expression, they are still, without exception, incredible.

He hopes that he’s like that, too. Nagisa says he is, but Nagisa also tried to push him off the roof to see if he could fly, so Rei’s not certain that he counts as a reliable information source.

Makoto smiles slowly. “Alive for now, you mean.”

Miho steps closer to him, her mouth a firm line. “You are going to live a long, long time. Don’t do things now that you will have to regret later. Even a thousand years can’t blunt some pains.”

Rei is surprised enough by her words, by the heavy weight of experience in her usually bubbly voice, that it takes him a second longer than usual to realise that Nagisa is doing something.

“Mako-chan, we-” he starts to say, moving forward. Rei reaches out to grab him and drag him back, but Makoto moves before Rei’s hand makes contact with Nagisa’s arm.

Makoto’s strike is one fluid movement, grabbing Nagisa and biting down into his neck without pause. Nagisa’s yell seems to be made of surprise and pain in equal measure, and the sound of it makes something that was waiting, dormant and invisible inside Rei, rear up and unsheathe its claws.

Logic and reason stop existing. All he can think is that he has to stop Makoto, has to destroy this intruder who dared to hurt what’s Rei’s. With a snarl he launches forward, trying to pry Makoto apart from Nagisa.

“Ryugazaki-san! Stop!”

He swats away the small figure that tries to hold him back, his entire being focused on tearing Makoto apart. The two of them slam to the ground together, Nagisa falling to the side as Makoto’s forced to let him go and concentrate on protecting himself from Rei.

Suddenly he’s lifted off, strong arms wrapped around his chest and hauling him away from Makoto. Miho darts between them, a small but lethal-looking knife clutched in her hand. She drags the blade across Makoto’s throat in a deep line.

Whatever switch was thrown by Nagisa’s shout is flipped again by the sight of the blood flooding along the newly cut wound, the savage thing inside Rei placated by his foe being neutralised.

“Let me go, I’m all right,” he snaps to Seijuro, trying to struggle free of the hold he’s still being restrained by. Seijuro steps away, leaving Rei free to move over to Nagisa.

The bite on Nagisa’s neck is messy, savage, tearing deep and bleeding everywhere. Rei doesn’t remember ever seeing this much blood in one place, not even in violent movies. The smell of it makes his hands shake and his heart hammer.

“Nagisa!” Rei yells, trying to get a response, but Nagisa’s completely unresponsive. Rei isn’t sure if he’s even breathing, and it’s only because his blood’s still flowing freely out of the bite that Rei knows he’s alive at all.

Rei bites his own wrist open, puncturing the radial artery neatly with his fangs and holding it to Nagisa’s mouth. He can’t remember having this done to himself, but if there was ever a time when he’s grateful to know the theory behind an act, it’s now.

Nothing happens for one second, then another. Rei’s vaguely aware that other dramatic things are happening in other parts of the room, but right now none of that matters. All that matters is waiting until –

Nagisa’s mouth opens wider against Rei’s wrist, tongue lapping out against the blood. His eyelids flutter, as if he’s caught in a dream, but don’t open fully. For a moment Rei is so relieved that he wants to cry, and then the enormity of what he’s doing hits him, and he uses a word that none of the other inhabitants of the room have ever heard him say.

“Language,” Seijuro remarks mildly. “There _is_ a teacher present, you know.”

Rei looks away from Nagisa for the first time in several minutes, finally taking stock of their wider surroundings.

The room looks like a horror movie set, and they all look like they were starring in it. Miho’s clothes are the exception, spotless amongst the gory maelstrom. She’s clucking her tongue in annoyance over several ruined fingernails, however.

Aiichiro and Rin are both all right, from the look of it, so Rei mustn’t have knocked Aiichiro aside with too much force, at least. They’re both staring at Haruka and Makoto, and when Rei follows their eyelines he understands why.

Makoto is half-sprawled, half-cradled across Haruka’s lap, the two of them soaked in Makoto’s blood. Makoto looks dead, his face stilled wearing an expression of confusion and fear. Haruka’s touching his hair, carefully.

“He’ll be all right,” Miho says. She sounds incredibly tired. Rei’s not surprised. “It might take a few hours before he wakes up again, and he’ll be hungry when he does. But he’ll be all right.” She looks around the room. “I’m glad I took money off those rogues I killed. This is going to cost a fortune to get cleaned before the family gets home.”

“Amakata-sensei…” Rei says, not wanting to put off the inevitable longer than he has to. “... remember that thing that we all promised we wouldn’t do?”

She turns to look at him, still holding his wrist to Nagisa’s eagerly suckling mouth.

She lets out a very, very long sigh and pinches between her eyes. “I’ve written exams that lasted longer than we managed to keep that vow.”

“I’m sorr-”

“It’s all right.” Miho shakes her head. “Of course it is. You and Makoto will be responsible for him, though, since it’s your doing.”

Rei realises, sinking feeling in his gut, that he’s never really contemplated just how long eternal life is going to be.

 

 


End file.
